ElvenDancer's page

I fully admit I am still only a casual fan of Pathfinder. I've been a Forgotten Realms fan for years, and was introduced to Pathfinder during a brief time I played with a group that disbanded. But I became curious enough about the setting to do some casual research, and, being a bookworm (or, as I like to say, bookwyrm), I was happy to see there were Pathfinder Tales. Of course, now the novel line has been on hiatus. I stopped paying attention to Pathfinder. With 2E out now, I am slowly poking my nose back in lol, but I am curious about something that those more knowledgeable will hopefully be able to answer:

My understanding was that souls went to the Boneyard, where they then went to their deity, or were judged by Pharasma. They would then spend their eternity in that afterlife (or, I know elves were sometimes reincarnated).

In Lost Omens World Guide, it says this: "When most mortals speak of the afterlife, they're talking about the Outer Sphere--realms ruled by gods and the transformed souls of the dead. Here the River of Souls ends in the Boneyard, where the godddess Pharasma judges each individual and assigns them to a realm according to their morality and beliefs. These souls eventually become outsiders, or fade into the very fabric of the planes themselves." (pg 10).

It's this last sentence that is tripping me up, and seems to contradict things a bit from P1. What does it mean by outsider, and why do they eventually fade into the "very fabric of the planes"? This kind of reminds me of the Planescape model, where a soul sometimes becomes either part of the plane, enriching it, or becomes a part of their deity. But in these cases, according to On Hallowed Ground, they maintain a sense of consciousness and personality. But at least in the World Guide, the description is so vague I can't really get a sense of what they meant.

I'm not very religious irl, but I love gods and afterlife stuff in fantasy, so I was intrigued by the descriptions in P1, but I don't really like the idea of "fading into the fabric of the planes". And again, what is meant by the outsiders?

When it coems to P2, I only have the World Guide, so I don't know if this is elaborated on elsewhere. Any explanation would be helpful. TIA.

I was looking at products for P2, and I saw the Pathfinder Omens of the Lost World Guide available for preorder. In the description, it says the god of prophecy is dead. Isn't this Pharasma (sp?), who is also the goddess of death? What kind of changes will this bring to the fate of souls? Do they automatically go to the realms of their gods (which would be fine), bypassing Pharsma?

It does get annoying when settings kill off gods (Forgotten Realms is guilty of this, too), but maybe someone else has more info or could clarify? What exactly are the world changes in P2? Do we know?

I am still new to PF. I was drawn in by the novels, but I haven't finished them, since it's unclear when/if they will be picked up again, so I apologize if this has already been discussed.

Stopping by to introduce myself (I hope this is the correct place).
I am still fairly new to the Pathfinder setting. I have been a Forgotten Realms fan for years, and have recently discovered Pathfinder. I have read a few of the PF Tales, but likely won't comment much until I have a better grasp of the world. I just wanted to introduce myself (if this is the wrong place I apologize).

In the FR setting, some of my favorite aspects were the elves and the gods, and that is likely to be the case with Pathfinder, too lol. I don't game much, but I love reading the novels.

I may comment on a thread now and then, or post a review on a book or short story, but I'll probably just hang out for a while.